Bank of America beats on earnings

Bank of America just reported first quarter earnings that beat on
the bottom line and missed on the top line.

Adjusted earnings per share were $0.36 on revenue of $21.4
billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings per share of $0.29 on
revenue of $21.6 billion, according to Bloomberg.

In the same quarter last year, the bank reported adjusted
earnings per share of $0.35 on revenue of $22.8 billion.

"We see continued encouraging signs in customer and client
activity, with consumer spending increasing and utilization of
credit by our commercial customers rising," said CEO
Brian Moynihan in a press release. "This should bode well
for the near-term economic outlook."

Regarding its revenue miss, Bank of
America said: "Nearly $1 billion of this decline was related to a
$757 million reduction in equity investment income as the prior
year included a gain on sale of a portion of an equity
investment, and $211 million was related to additional
market-related adjustments on the company's debt securities
portfolio due to the impact of lower long-term interest
rates."

Trading revenue was $4.6 billion and in fixed income, currencies,
and commodities, the bank recorded the highest foreign exchange
and trading revenue since its merger with Merrill Lynch.

The bank also reported that the number of 60+ day delinquent
first mortgages were down 19 percent from the prior quarter and
45 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Legal fees came in at $370 million, down from $6 billion in the
same quarter last year and $393 million last quarter.

The lower legal fees helped bring noninterest expenses down to
$15.7 billion compared, with $22.2 billion in the same quarter a
year ago. The bank said that savings from its cost-cutting "New
BAC" program, launched in 2011 and designed to streamline and
align expenses, also contributed to the lower expenses.

Last quarter, BofA saw a dip in quarterly profits, including a
$397 million loss in its real estate division and a net loss of
$72 million in trading revenues.

Goldman Sachs and Citigroup will report their Q1 earnings on
Thursday.